*EGO - Also see SELF, SIN, SEPARATE.
The ego is our deeply ingrained belief that we are a separate self. Therefore we must be victor over our surroundings - thus leading us to sin. We seek to possess pride, power, adulation and love. We collect idols of money, possessions, achievements, abilities, beautiful bodies, prestigious friends. (ACIM Intro, p26-7)
those who have transcended the ego to reach Divine Realization. This is the inner route from the self to the Self. Our real "self" is actually a universal "Self" that is connected to everyone and everything. The small individual self, the ego, fights like crazy to protect this illusion that it's the real thing. It's really just an abstact. Our true nature is based in a benevolent unifying God force that is all encompassing. It's everything and everywhere and only our ego based fears block our awareness of it. (Discovery of the Presence of God-Devotional NonDuality by Dr. David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D.)
The ego-principle is the root cause of dualism or the seeming separation between man and his Creator, in which the subject (ego) falsely appears as object; the creatures imagine themselves to be creators. (Yogi, p41)
The greatest challenge in life is to control our ego. Embarrassment is the response of a person who still has an ego investment in how others see him. Invite yourself to move past that. (Conversations, p160-1)
God manifests himself in human beings. As long as we are not conscious of this, we remain prisoners in the dungeons of our egos. If we succeed in transcending ego-consciousness and reaching an experience of enlightenment and undergo the new birth and the new creation of which the Scriptures speak. (Contemplation, p70)